Indeed, many other Bernie-isms from 2016 are being proposed by many of his Democratic rivals. Beto O'Rourke have now made similar pledges to reject PAC money. In 2016, he commonly bragged that the average amount of a donation to his campaign was $27. Sanders' following also comes from his decision to completely reject donations from Super PACS and corporations. "Donald Trump is an embarrassment for us and much of the world," Sanders said on Saturday, later referring to him as "the most dangerous president in American history. He is more than willing to be a direct check on the Trump administration's policies and personally criticize the president, from condemning his unwillingness to recognize political corruption in Saudi Arabia to labeling him an authoritarian demagogue. Sanders has since become the anti-establishment leader on the left, and, similar to President Donald Trump's rightward transformation of the Republican Party, Sanders has pushed Democrats leftward to a socialist vernacular and more progressive politics. His 2016 candidacy exposed structural bias in the Democratic primary process and catalyzed internal party reform, particularly after former Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz's emails were leaked and the party was proved to have favored Clinton and taken steps to undermine Sanders. Sanders supporter Erika Garcia wears a shirt that says “Hindsight is 2020.” (Annenberg Media / Morgan Stephens) Sanders eventually lost to Clinton, but not before transforming the ideology and mechanics of the Democratic party. When Sanders challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016, he presented himself as a direct counterpoint to her left-of-center platform. He was brandishing a "Trojans for Bernie" sign. USC students attend the rally to support Bernie Sanders. "In 2016, Bernie Sanders platform was widely seen as very leftist, not able to be accomplished, but now a wide majority have embraced his platform," Thomas Martin, a USC sophomore who attended Sanders' Saturday rally, said. Indeed, Sanders' popularity has grown by 6 points since he first visited Iowa in December. According to Tufts University, Sanders collected more votes in 2016 from young people than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump combined, and in early Iowa polls, Sanders is only 2 points behind front-runner Joe Biden, who has yet to announce his candidacy. Sanders' rise in popularity is in large part due to his support among millennial progressives. "A funny thing has happened over the last couple of years: turns out that justice is not too radical an idea for the American people." "The ideas that we talked about were considered by establishment politicians and mainstream media as being too radical, too extreme," Sanders said to cheering supporters on Saturday. Sanders' ideology, which only three years ago was commonly labeled as radical, has now been embraced by a wide swath of the Democrats seeking their party's presidential nomination. (Beto O'Rourke recently outdid Sanders after announcing his own bid for the White House: $6.1 million in his first 24 hours.) Since running for president back in 2016, Sanders has been catapulted from narrow recognition among progressives to icon status among mainstream liberals, and the main points from his 2016 platform - raising the federal minimum wage, creating universal healthcare, protecting the environment, reforming the criminal justice and immigration systems, and making public universities free - have become litmus test issues for his Democratic rivals.Īfter announcing his bid for president in February, Sanders raised nearly $6 million in just 24 hours - setting records and surpassing the fundraising efforts of every other Democratic presidential candidate to that date.
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